BOOKS IN BRIEF: NONFICTION

Wendy Kaminer, lawyer and social critic, worries that Americans are losing their civil liberties. In ''Free for All,'' her new collection of pieces, most of which were originally published in The American Prospect, Kaminer urges us against accepting reflexively the domestic security measures recommended by the Bush administration since Sept. 11. She is probably right that national identification cards would be less effective than rigorous luggage searches, but her fear that such measures could lead to a police state seems a tad extreme. The trouble with Kaminer's reasoning, not to mention her tone (which frequently turns to ridicule), becomes more apparent when she addresses the topic of free speech; the arguments she offers can seem as nit-picking and as hysterical as those she wishes to counter. In her hairsplitting, she leans on studies or dismisses them, depending on her purpose. In one piece, Kaminer scornfully attacks those who have expressed concern about violence in the entertainment media; in the next piece, she complains that people who oppose popular culture ''want to reform it.'' But what is criticism if not an attempt at reform? Paula Friedman